What Do the Stats Say About Texas A&M? By The Numbers

It's the game of the week in the SEC and in college football: the Crimson Tide will travel to College Station to take on the Aggies of Texas A&M on Saturday. The Tide are hoping not to drop their second conference game of the season while the Aggies are looking to stay on top of the SEC West with a win over Alabama.

After last year's humbling loss to the Tide by a score of 59-0, it's easy to make the assumption that Alabama will dominate in the same manner this season. However, this A&M team is much different, and for that matter, this Alabama team is as well.

How are the Aggies different, then? Let's take a look at their numbers.

When one thinks of the Aggies under the tutelage of Kevin Sumlin, it's usually of a team that possesses an explosive, nearly unstoppable offense juxtaposed by a porous, non-physical defense that gives up a lot of points and a lot of yards.

Well, we all know what happens when you assume, don't we?

Sure the Aggies haven't been the most dominant defensive team over the past few years, but they have plenty of good athletes on that side of the ball who are all capable of making plays.

So far this season, Texas A&M hasn't been world beaters by any means on the defensive side of the ball, but they have been respectable. They've played a total of 356 plays on defense so far this season, ranking the 34th fewest in college football. Along with the number of plays that they've played, the Aggies' defense is averaging 5.26 yards/play, good enough for 57th in college football.

Obviously, these numbers aren't eyebrow raising by any means, but they're definitely above average relative to the college football world.

So what does that mean for the Tide's offense? Well, they have ran the 19th most plays in college football (458), but average the 58th most yards/play (5.71). In essence, expect things to move along quickly when the Aggies defense takes the field.

Or maybe not.

Alabama is 2nd in the SEC in pass attempts as an offense, but 9th in passer rating. Texas A&M's pass defense ranks as the 38th best team in yards/attempt with 6.2 and 45th in passer rating with a 115.97.

However, the Aggies rank 26th in college football in passes defended with 5.2 per game. With Alabama's inconsistency in the passing game so far this season, expect quite a few more incompletions from Alabama quarterback Jake Coker in this game.

Texas A&M's weakness on defense, however, is their run defense. They've already given up eight rushing touchdowns this season in just five games, and rank 86th in yards/attempt (4.57). Alabama's offense is on par with A&M's rush defense, as they average 4.61 yards/rush attempt.

So, Texas A&M's defense isn't world beaters by any means, but they are serviceable for what they like to do, and that is give their offense opportunities to score points.

The Aggie offense is high powered and explosive, proving to be one of the most efficient in the country. They average .533 points/play (contrast that to .454 points/play for Alabama's offense) and, according to one of our featured guests Dave Bartoo, Texas A&M has the 18th most efficient offense in the country by his algorithm of offensive efficiency.

Bartoo's algorithm is based on what the scoreboard says (which ultimately is all that matters at the end of the day), but it doesn't factor in how well a team can actually move the ball down the field. The Aggies have found a formula for effectively moving the ball down the field, and should be proven when they play Alabama on Saturday.

Relative to the rest of college football, they rank 13th in passer rating, 19th in passing yards/attempt, and 23rd in passing yards/game. They have a dynamic passing game, but that passing game would not be near as effective if they didn't have a respectable run game.

*Let me preface this by saying that A&M doesn't have a dominant run game. It's serviceable enough to do what they need it to do.*

The Aggies average 4.72 yards/rush, which ranks 45th in college football, but is actually higher than what Alabama averages (4.61). Per game, A&M puts up 188 rushing yards, good enough for 51st in the nation. Again, nothing amazing or earth-shattering by any stretch of the imagination, but combined with their ability to throw the pigskin, this offense is stout to say the least.

Alabama has the most talent of the two teams, so what this game will come down to is which team can do what they do better than the other team.